THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: Kim boosted by China talks

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came away from his fourth meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping with his hand strengthened in nuclear talks with the US, analysts say, even as Seoul urged him to do more.

Beijing is Pyongyang’s sole major ally and key provider of trade and aid, their ties forged in the blood of the Korean War.

The relationship had soured in recent years as China became frustrated with its neighbor’s nuclear antics but warmed dramatically in 2018 as Kim and Xi met three times, each occasion coming shortly before Kim’s summits with US President Donald Trump and the South’s Moon Jae-in.

A second Kim-Trump meeting is expected soon, and the North Korean and Chinese leaders had far deeper security discussions this time in Beijing than in any of their talks last year, pointed out Lim Eul-chul, professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University.

Kim and Xi agreed to jointly study and co-ordinate “the management of the situation of the Korean peninsula and the denuclearisation negotiations in particular”, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.

That will give China a central role in future US-North Korean discussions, Lim told AFP, even if it is not in the room at the time.

“Closer ties between China and North Korea in pursuit of a security alliance will not be welcomed by the US,” Lim told AFP.

“It could be a challenge to Washington to face Pyongyang officials with firm backing from their neighbour.”

The negotiation process has stalled since Kim and Trump’s first high-profile encounter in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely-worded statement on denuclearisation and have since disagreed on what it means.

Pyongyang is demanding the easing of sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, while Washington insists they must remain in place until it gives up its atomic arms — something it has made no public promise to do.

China — which regards northeast Asia as its back yard and is engaged in a range of disputes of its own with the US, including a trade spat that threatens to upset the global economy — also wants the sanctions relaxed.

Xi agreed with the “principled issues” raised by North Korea in talks with the US and that its “reasonable points of concern should be resolved properly”, according to Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency.

Pyongyang has a long history of playing major powers off against each other, with Kim’s predecessor and grandfather Kim Il Sung adept at winning backing from the then Communist rivals Beijing and Moscow in turn.

“North Korea uses engagement with China to reinforce its leverage with the United States and vice versa,” said former US diplomat and Korea specialist Mintaro Oba.

It could be “annoying” for Pyongyang to have to face Beijing emphasizing its “superiority” in their relationship, he tweeted, but that was “a small price to pay for a strengthened position” in talks with Trump.

Source: AFP